The Washington critic., 1887-12-10
HINTS FOR WRITER'S.
Some Sound Practical Advice TO Lit
crary ASpirantS,
WORKINGS OF THE BOOK MILL.
Common Sense, Simplicity, Good Ed
ucation and strong Imagination
the Standard Quaiiiica-
tions.
EConyrlghted 1ss11


BRocKroEr, n. Y, Dec. 10.--I have
been asked to give some practical advice
TO would-be writer's. When / say
"would-bo" writer's, | mean no disre-
spect TO those who are standing at the
threshold Of the door of literature wait
ing for the "opcn sesame" which shall
bid them enter. In way We arc all
would-bcs, no matter how successful We
may have been Who that stands on
the tenth round of the worlds ladder
would not be on the twelfth, il there
were twelfth, and it were possible to
reach itP And this is right. Ambition
is good thing il kept under CONTROL
and / have always dcmurrcd at the
teaching which bids us he content with
the station in life to which it has pleased
God TO call us. To do our duty there is
one thing, while to be content is quito
another, il IL bc possible TO better our
selves. If this rule were followed
there could never be any progress or
change, and Abraham Lincoln would
have split rails all his life by that hum
bic cabin in the West, instead of win
ming q martyrs crown and name
which can never die. And SO, when |
see my fellow-creaturcs struggling to
rise, with Il belief that they have
talent which should not be hidden. /
am glad to give them helping hand,
especially ii they are would-be writers,
for whom this talk is intended, and to
whom am giving my own opinions and
experience, which may be very different
| from those of another
81 want to write book. VIII you
| tell me how to do it, and what | ought
I to read and how 70 get my book pub
/ lishcd after it is writtcn?" are questions
/ often asked of those who, from long ex-
pcricncc, are supposed to know the
| iRHoss of the ia.
10 the question, how to write, l
should say
Don't WRITE AT ALL,
unless you are sure you have the gift,
which is God-giycn, born with you, and
| can 10 more be made to order than can
Il taste for music when one has no ear
/ for it. Don't think you can write be-
| cause you are fond of reading stories
and dcvour everything which comes in
/ your way, or because you think yourself
as capable as your friend, who has
achieved Il success you iuin would emit
late. You must have the ideal
world in you and about you.
/ You must early be familiar with the
imaginary people you are TO make real,
and who, il YOU are real yourself, will
come to you sleeping and waking, at day
dawn and sunset, and laying their
shadowy hands on yours will hold you
fast until you tinglo TO your finger tips
and can no more keep from writing than
the bird can keep from singing when
the dew is on the grass and the morning
is at its freshest. If you have never ex-
perienced this glow Of enthusiasm, if
you have no Imagination and are taking
up writing rs you would any other busi-
ness, because you think it will pay, or
You want fame and money, don't try to
write, for if you do it will be stilted and
unnatural.
But if you are sure IL is in you, and
YOU have something to say, go ahead and
do the best You can, burning every Sec
ond page and cutting from the other
every superiluous sentence, especially il
it has in it that ilowery kind of scnti-
ment in which Young writers are so apt
TO indulge. Nobody will read it, for ii
/ you reach the masses, and TO be wholly
| successful you must reach them, they
/ will care more for the story than for fine
writing, or long pages of reflections and
moralizing; and, above all, do not affect
of the encyclopedia and quoting from
Plutarch and the classics. 1t is
EASY FOR WRITERS TO SEEM LEARNED
if they have textbooks at their COM
mand, but the ruse is readily seen
through. once saw an authors table
piled with dictionaries and encyclopedias
of all kinds, and knew then why her
brain-children NIL talked book and had
at their tongues end mythology and en-
tomology and theosophy and vivisec-
ton, and Ruskin and Froissart, and Il
hundred more men and subjects for
which her readers did not care pin.
"Now give us q tune" said an old
lady in my hearing TO her niece, who
had been playinga q most brilliant and
difficult piece OF music, which neverthc-
less had in it nothing that struck the old
lady's ear as pleasing or familiar. And
in way we oil want u tune, or some
| thing we have seen and felt, and which
appeals TO us and arouses our sympathy
and interest.
do not think the most successful
writers are those whose books by their
| profundity of learning and subtle analy-
ses of men and morals have reached n
few of the so-called higher class, but
| rather the writers whose books by their
/ naturulness and truthfulness to every
| day life have touched the many with u
sense of intimate acquaintance and n
| feeling that they are reading of them
selves and of people whom they know.
A moral there should always be, but un-
! less you are attacking n great evil or
wrong ii should not be pcrsistently kept
in sight, for no one likes to be told con-
tinually that YOU are trying to make
him better. Let the moral be to the
book what the soul is to the body, and
| quietly permcatc all parts of it, so that
the reader will feel that, in pleasant
way, he has received n lesson for good
which was meant for him, and wonders
how you happened to hit his case SO
we'll
WHAT YOUNG WRITER'S SHOULD READ.
The question, "What ought to rcad?"
| cannot answer without first knowing
what you have read; but of this be as
sured, that without common sense and
a good education you will never succeed.
No publisher worth having will look Mt
a manuscript which he sees Mt glance
is badly spelled and full Of grammatical
errors. That this is often the case |
know from experience for | am lrc-
qucntly asked to read MSS. which show
such ignorance that | give them up IN